Poverty is down because of the third world invasion of capitalistic welfare societies. When the momentum ends look for poverty to rise to unprecedented levels.
Your comments have me thinking. It does seem there's a "reset" for the global population, and it does not involve much opportunity for a middle class. Will it be the elite, beneath them those government workers who implement their initiatives, and everyone else living at a survival level, not all that much beyond poverty? Will our economic lives, and thus everything else, be under government control? Will we have adequate food, housing, safety, medical care, recreational needs, but not much else? Is that what the deliberate destruction of civilizations is about? Make us willing to trade freedom for security?
I try to imagine what that future will be like. Can't say it's preferable to the bad ol' days.
sorry, no — poverty levels are down because the developing world has embraced capitalism